Timescale for buying a house - No chain

Hoploz

Another thing which can cause hold ups (which may or may not apply to you) is a property being leasehold, as the freeholder has to respond to a request and issue the info required regarding the details of the lease. This can take weeks if the freeholder is slow.

kinger101

Ask your solicitor how long it should take. Then double it.

tim9966

Back in 2006 when I bought the house I was already renting and living in, it took 2 1/2 months to go through.

shazzer22

Just thought I'd share our recent experience

We are due to complete on Wednesday, we viewed the property on 16th Jan. So we will be about 8.5 weeks, it has been very challenging though and I have spent hours on phone chasing down our mortgage, valuation, chasing responses to enquiries, responding immeadiately to our enquiries and requests for additional information, chasing estate agent for updates and getting them to push things through as well. We are selling ours to an investment buyer, thus the urgency to complete before the end of March, buying in the same village and the people we are buying from are buying out of area, but a vacant house. I went round and introduced myself to our sellers and we've made a great team keeping each other informed and chipping away at things to secure us a quick process. I made my expectations really clear with our solicitors from the outset that I would be that annoying customers who rings and emails every other day, but kept it really friendly and courteous with them. Two other things that I think have worked in our favour, 1) there's only two estate agents involved in the whole chain, they are both small independent companies and they are also going to be the agent for the BTL. 2) Us and our vendor used the same firm of solicitors (had to use separate branches and partners and agree to conflict of interest assessment) but I think this helped because if there was a query to chase it was assistants that knew each other/own internal documentation systems and accounting.

Hope that helps - good luck!

SensibleSarah

My house had no chain. On paper it should have been easy and fast but it was a bit of a nightmare in the end. Offer accepted end of April and I didn't complete until late October, so around 6 months.

Main issues were that the vendors were selling their elderly deceased mum's home which they hadn't lived in since they were kids and they gave loads of incorrect info about the house which meant big delays when searches & checks were done e.g. House was advertised as freehold but actually turned out to be leasehold (and an absent freeholder which will hasn't been resolved) and there was some work to be done before valuation could be completed which it took them nearly 3 months to get done. Fortunately I had a very understanding landlord at the time who was happy with a couple of weeks notice from me.

I've had friends manage it in 8 weeks ish, so it can be done, but it's probably the exception rather than the rule. I'd speak to your landlords & see if there is any flexibility in your leave date.

dirty_magic

Ours took 9 weeks. Would have been quicker but we had a small issue that the solicitor pushed for an indemnity policy for.

I think our vendors were pushing to get it done quicker because they accepted our offer on the basis that we'd complete within 8 weeks. We didn't push at all.

Riggyman

No chance.

deFoix

My offer was accepted at the start of December on a chain free flat. Still waiting for a completion date owing to paperwork on planning and building regs! I feel like such a fool assuming I'd be moving in within 6 weeks.

steeeb

Firstly ring your solicitor for a estimated timescale. Mention your predicament.

Contact your landlord. Explain the situation. Say you're happy to accommodate viewings etc. and you'll give vacant possession once they actually sell and before they complete if you can just give a months notice once you have a completion date.

I assume they're at a marketing stage and not actually further in the process than you are selling it? If so I'm sure they'll be happy getting an extra month or 2 rent and knowing you WILL be going due to buying rather than having to try to evict you.

teffers

First purchase attempt - No Chain - various issues, bad vendor solicitor, bad vendor - gave up after 5 months.

Second (current) attempt - No Chain - motivated vendor - 4 weeks in but vendor has now gone on holiday for two weeks, my solicitor then goes on holiday for two weeks on the day he gets back ... I guess about 10 weeks (hopefully).